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I recently relocated from NorCal to Nova Scotia. Among a thing or two I had to get used to was a lesson in beach flying with my Talon at a sunny minus 15 degress -- Celsius, that is here in Canada.

Beach flying in California used to go like this, even in late January: Surf permitting, you fly your kite into the sea. It gets heavier, more sluggish and develops some oversteer. As you keep flying, the water shakes off and evaporates, and after while the flying behavior is back to normal. The Talon is pretty forgiving when wet anyway. Fly it in the water again and repeat.

Not so in icy Nova Scotia temperatures: You land the kite in the water, it gets heavier, more sluggish, develops oversteer. And it stays that way. You fly it in the water again, it gets even more unwieldy -- and stays that way. Until, after a while, you can barely fly it anymore.

Closer investigation reveals what is not surprising in hindsight: Severe icing on the wings. Sand baked in with the ice adds even more weight. And back home at night you realize that that garden hose is not connected (not surprising in hindsight), and it occurs to you that the kite, meanwhile thawed, not only caused a major mess in the trunk (not surprising in hindsight either), but is going to do the same in route to the bath tub. So more preparation next time, please!

Other than that, and given warm enough clothing, flying in wintry conditions can be _a lot_ of fun:

Thanks for the kudos on the color scheme. Part of the honor goes to Kris, my wife, and to Ken McNeill. An Exile UL was my first kite in these colors, and they both honed my initial, somewhat clumsy drafts. The schizophrenia was not so much in what kite to fly, but what color scheme to buy.

Too bad I never really clicked with the Exile, as it is one top-notch kite. Haven't flown it in a while, and I have made a bit of progress lately. So maybe I should give it another try.

The most recent iteration of those colors will be a Solus, which I ordered the other day. Almost those colors, that is, as the grape fabric has run out. Hope that purple will work, too.

That beach _is_ a great place to fly -- most of the time. I realized once more that I have been in marketing for too long: The picture shows the best possible situation. This was taken at low tide during a full moon. Six hours later, the water would have covered virtually everything that is free of snow. So the beach is much narrower a lot of the time.

Checking the tide tables in addition to the wind forecast is another one of those things I have had to get used to. And that _was_ quite unexpected, even in hindsight.

Too bad I never really clicked with the Exile, as it is one top-notch kite. Haven't flown it in a while, and I have made a bit of progress lately. So maybe I should give it another try.

And that is what I did today. The Exile is still a stunning beauty, but still we don't click.

Thanks to some progress in my flying skills, I can now get the kite to do things it did not do for me before. But most of the moves don't come easy. You feel that the Exile is a top-level kite, but we just don't speak the same language. Reminded me a bit of some of those situations with my wife, when every single step requires a lengthy discussion.

HOT KITES-COLD CLIMATE.Great pics JayDee,we are in the grip of winter over here but i aint gona whine no more after that tale.What if you crack a sail? FROST BITE! your days are getting longer.Man those kites are so goooood looooking Loved the story,thanks Is that good looking wagon 4x4 or is the sand rock hard(frozen)?

Yes and yes. The beach is hard enough for any car to drive on, even if the sand is not frozen. Still, it is a 4WD. Always appeared like overkill to me while I lived in California, but actually came in quite handy a couple times last winter. Considering the amount of road salt they use in Nova Scotia, the poor thing won't be quite that good looking for very much longer, though.

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